


Just another Rodeo

by Void_Home



Category: Ib (Video Game), Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, but otherwise function the same, crawls into this au like a gremlin, sets this down experimentally, tell me if u want more, their souls take the shapes of roses because of the gallery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-27
Updated: 2018-09-23
Packaged: 2019-03-10 00:54:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13493424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Void_Home/pseuds/Void_Home
Summary: It's just like the gallery, except it's under a mountain and everything may possibly not want to kill them. Maybe. Just another day at theart galleryrodeoUnder the mountain? In the life of two traumatized people? Hard to figure out.





	1. Chapter 1

_ See you again, Ib. _

Never thought it'd be like this.

Everything from her head to her toes hurt. The fact she still felt anything at all showed her attempt had failed. A small sob escaped her as she jerked herself into a sitting position, curling up and pressing her head to her knees with some more softer crying. She only stops when footsteps back over to her have her rubbing her eyes frantically.

“It’s alright to cry, Ib.” And that voice alone has her sobbing again because she knows exactly who it is. And Ib knows she can trust him not to judge her for crying. He comes into her view and bends down, fringed edges of a dark poncho spreading out as he kneels before her. He looks like he hasn’t changed a bit in the three years she’s known him, and it’s soothing, it’s like being in the gallery and knowing he was there too, stuck like she was. Ib flings herself forward to grip him and cry into his poncho uninhibited, and Garry lets her with nothing but a gentle back rub.

“I’m serious, it’s always okay to cry, Ib. It shows you care.” He assures her again, not really knowing  _ why _ she was crying, but willing to let her just work it out of her system. “Do you mind if I carry you, hon? I want to get you out of these flowers. They’re toxic.” The concern in his voice has Ib nodding and he scoops her up gently before starting off out of the beam of light and flower patch.

Ib wiggles a bit in his arms before settling, looking over his shoulder at the flowers as he goes further into the cave. One thought keeps bumping back to her mind though. Why was he here  _ too _ ? Had Garry tried doing the same thing she had, and failed just like her? It was sad. “Garry?” She asks softly, turning her head to look up at him. Garry looks at her as he walks, humming a touch.

“Yes Ib?” Garry asks finally as he bends to enter a smaller chamber, looking around and locking eyes with a tiny flower on the ground. A flower with a  _ face _ . If he wasn’t holding Ib he probably would’ve thrown any nearby object at it, because every part of him was screaming ‘Bad Flower’ at it. And usually, when his brain was screaming bad anything, it was a good judge of character. Therefore, that flower was a  _ bad flower _ .

Ib tilts her head to follow Garry’s eyes and scrunches her nose a bit at the smiling flower as she speaks. “Thank you. What’s that?” The flower beams more at her asking that, bobbing it’s head toward them.

“Howdy! I’m Flowey the Flower!” Nope. Nope. Nope. Both of them are not okay with this, and Garry sets Ib down and slides her behind him on instinct, putting himself between the two. He didn’t trust that thing, as normal as it seemed to be, beyond the face, it was hitting every possible alarm in his brain. “You guys’re new here!” The flower bobs its head back and forth some more, white petals fluttering into existence. “Let me teach you both some things, ey?”

“Stay behind me, Ib. I don’t like the looks of this.. Thing.”

“Me neither, Garry..”


	2. The Ruins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Surprise I brought more, Including Toriel and Frisk

The flower never got the chance. A rock bounced off it’s head, and a fireball smashed into the spot it had been, keyword being  _ had _ . Flowey had delved into the ground the second the rock hit it. Garry is still tense, one hand still clutched by Ib-ready to pull him and run, flee from a danger that they couldn’t see yet- looking ahead at the shape approaching them. Shapes, there was two.

“Oh dear, that was close.” The goat woman says-she could speak?- in a nervous voice as she walks behind the other child, who is jogging close to make sure they’re alright. Ib seems to trust the child, and the goat lady in turn, so Garry relaxes.

“Thank you for the save, that flower felt no good.” Garry thanks while Ib slinks around to stand beside him, waving a hello to the kid. The kid beams, glad to see they’re unharmed.

[He is no good] Fingers fly, and while Garry may not get it, Ib does. She gasps softly-probably at seeing someone else use sign language so fluently- and smiles a bit before answering in turn. [The flower gave us the heebie jeebies] The other kid seems more startled at Ib understanding them than by the statement, smile growing ever wider.

“Flowey is an odd one indeed. Are you perhaps her brother, sir?” Goat lady asks, and Garry’s head turns from the two children and to her, managing a hesitant smile. She is definitely a goat lady, that’s for sure. _It’s unnerving._

“No, just a friend of hers. My name’s Garry, and hers is Ib.” He explains, and Ib looks up to smile and wave a bit at her before going back to fast signing with the child. He wonders idly what they’re saying, he only catches snippets as he hasn’t practiced as much as he’d like. Ib’s got part of his poncho resting on her shoulder, just to remind herself he’s there and calm her heart from it’s frantic beating.

“Ah, I understand. I am  _ Toriel _ _of the ruins_ , and they’re Frisk. We were doing our rounds and happened to hear Flowey up to his usual shenanigans. I’m glad we got to stop him from doing either of you harm!” The goat woman-now revealed to be Toriel- beams, and turns, motioning the group to follow. Frisk hesitantly breaks off from Ib to trot closer to Toriel, while Garry looks unsure. After all, was it safe to follow someone you just met? But as Ib’s hand finds his and starts to pull, he supposes he’s done this before. No need to break the trend now.

Garry lets Ib pull him along-so familiar like back in that dim gallery in quiet- as he formulates his words. It’s impolite to just ask what she is, but he also can’t help but wonder-after that magical display, after the appearance- what Toriel is. “..Miss Toriel?” He starts, and waits until she hums to continue. “I don’t mean to sound impolite or rude, but…  _ what are you _ ?” There’s a silence as she leads them to a path covered in spikes, and as she’s taking Frisk’s hand-Ib takes Toriel’s hand too after a gentle prompting- she finally answers him.

The steps across the path are calculated and she walks them with ease. “I’m a monster, Garry. I don’t know if you know the history of them, or why we are trapped beneath the mountain, but I could enlighten you later, if you’d like?” And Garry wants to say no, that she can’t be a monster, because they aren’t real. But he can’t, because he and Ib had been through a gallery three years ago-through events horrible- that he would have also said was impossible, had he heard about it prior to the event. Garry knows that if she says she’s a monster, she must be. He simply needs to let it sink in now that they’re off the spikes, Toriel walking them along many, many paths. 

“I think I’d like that, Toriel. Thank you.” He settles on saying as they arrive before a building together, Frisk barreling on ahead now that their home was in sight. They only stop at the door to look back for Toriel’s approval before vanishing inside.

“Then I’ll teach you both over some pie!” She sounds excited about Pie.


	3. Into the underground for real

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here we go.

He and Toriel were using silverware to eat, and that was okay. They were content to do so while Frisk and Ib competed to see who could shove a whole pie slice down their gullet in one motion. They were having a blast and that was great, they got on like they were long time friends, which both desperately needed.

“-And so, Monsters have lived beneath the mountain for hundreds of years. I… do hope that makes sense, Garry.” Toriel finishes, fork clinking the ceramic plate as she gestures. It was a tale indeed, but Garry was worried, a bit. Toriel said hundreds of years, but monsters weren’t even written in their history as anything more than spooky stories. Things to scare kids with. But.. maybe time was just measured differently here?

Garry’s quick to smile and nod, old habits of trying to be a good role model for Ib hanging on. “Kind of, Miss Toriel. Thank you for being so generous in taking us in and everything.” He hears Ib copy the thanks herself as she gets up, empty plate in hand. Garry isn’t surprised in the least that she ate the whole pie slice, last year he’d watched her try to inhale her cake. Would have succeeded, too if she wasn’t stopped. She’d looked so disappointed then. 

She runs the water in the sink before putting her plate in and tapping her fingers on the counter. Finally, Ib speaks. Asks something they’d both been wondering. “Miss Toriel, how do we leave?” They hadn’t heard any way  _ out _ in her whole explanation.

Toriel’s demeanor changed like a switch was flipped. Her fork clicks forcefully onto her plate and the goat looks away-like she’d been asked so many times before- and Garry finds himself glancing to Frisk. They’ve got their head tilted to listen to Toriel’s reply- hoping that it might change. “Why would you want to? It’s safe here, my child.”

Ib turns the faucet off before answering, wringing her hands absentmindedly. “It might be safe, Toriel… But it’s not where we’re from. I want to go home.  _ Please? _ ” The girl squares the goat with a desperate, but determined look. For just a second, Garry can remember the gallery and that same look as she helps him down a dark hall, as Ib stares down Toriel. Ib was always exceptionally good at that. Even now she’s fixed Toriel with the look and refuses to back down,  _ and it works. _

“...If you’re certain, my child. I will show you all the way. But I cannot leave the ruins with you.” Toriel says softly, taking her-and Frisk’s plate- to the sink. Then gestures they follow. Garry puts his plate in the sink with the rest before sharing a look with Ib. It seemed almost… too easy. But he shrugs it off and follows Toriel and Frisk through the house.

As they start going down some stairs in the back of the living room, Frisk looks back at them, letting Toriel on ahead alone. “...Let me handle this, okay?” They ask gently, a confident-if tired- look on their tiny face. At first, Garry is spooked. He hadn’t thought they could talk at all. But then he focuses on what they asked. Garry would have said no, but the  _ look _ that Frisk has, he’s seen it before.  _ He’s had it himself. _ They know what they’re doing. Garry inhales a bit before giving them a nod. “Okay, if you’re sure, Frisk.” And Frisk seems delighted that for once someone had listened to them without them having to brute force it. Frisk scampers ahead of the group to lead the way, and Ib smiles a bit while taking his hand. He hopes he made the right decision. He knows he doesn’t quite have a good track record of doing that.

Frisk reaches Toriel before they do, and they arrive in time to see their SOUL peel from their chest- if they hadn’t seen their own represented as Roses in a gallery, this might have been scarier, actually- and hover just before them, in Toriel’s reach. Garry inhales sharply, ready to act when Ib’s hand stops him. He looks down at her, and her soft words ring true.

“They asked us to let them, Garry.”  And so they do. They let Frisk handle this, repeating motions to make their soul do certain things. Garry and Ib don’t understand, but are willing to  _ trust _ Frisk. And soon enough, Frisk is gently hugging Toriel, whispering that everything will be okay. They promise. Toriel won’t have to worry, they promise. And the confidence with which they say it is almost too sure, but Garry can’t be against it. They’d said they could handle this and they were  _ right _ , so Ib and he could believe it. He hesitates before stepping forward with Ib and Frisk looks up at him and her.

“We… We can go.” Frisk explains while nodding their head at the doorway behind them. “You go on ahead I’m… I’m gonna say bye to Toriel.”

 

Garry gives Frisk a small smile and a nod as he ushers Ib onward. "Take your time, hon. We'll be waiting."

Frisk didn't warn them it would be  _cold_.


End file.
